Anna and Dante Valenzuela

Obsessed

2011-11-21T11:01:00.000-08:00

So I pretty much just droll over Noah all day... I cannot believe he is ours! That little guy makes me smile all the time, what a cutie pie. Things have been crazy around here trying to figure out a schedule and how to be parents... I can't complain though, Noah is such a good baby. He usually isn't very fussy and is a champ when it comes to eating and sleeping. He is just bulking up big time, I think we have a future football player on out hands :) The only sad part about it, is that he is growing out of all of his cute PJ's that I just love!! These are by far my fav jammies of his, and even though I have tried, I can no longer squeeze him into these bad boys anymore

Aren't they just the cutest jammies ever?! However, they are looking a bit snug in this picture... he was NOT happy when I took this...hehe

Just another picture for your viewing pleasure..

Halloween was last month, and although we only had 3 trick or treaters ( my niece and 2 nephews) it was a blast... I made dinner in a pumpkin, pumpkin biscuits, corn, and mashed potatoes. It was delicious, but I do have to say, it has been tricky trying to figure out when to make dinner so it gets done in time for Dante to come home and all the while keeping little Noah happy. Here are some pics from the dinner though:

And we carved a pumpkin, Batman style... I do have to admit though, I am an awful pumpkin carver.... this was all Dantes handy work!

Anyways, back to the real reason you are reading my blog, here are some new updated pictures of Noah. He is just changing so much every day, before you know it, he will be walking and talking... well hopefully not too soon.. I don't know if I am ready for that quite yet!

Recently whenever I check on Noah, I have been finding him sleeping like this:

Doesn't he just look adorable?!?!?! We also moved him back into his big boy crib. Although he is getting bigger... he still looks so small when we put him in the crib. Since we live in Utah, it is basically freezing all the time here, so we have to bundle him up at night. I love coming to check on him because he is just a little head poking out of all of his blankets!

Ps. my mom made his "that's how I roll..." blanket...and I love it! So cute :)

here he is hanging with dad... and sleeping in his favorite position... hands up by the head!

ahhh I just can't get over this little boy. For those of you who don't know us very well, we LOVE sports.... especially the Celtics. I was converted to loving this basketball team after I married Dante. For my baby shower my good friend Rachel got Noah this awesome Celtics onsie and booties! Sadly the NBA is not happening this year, so he hasn't been able to wear this outfit a lot... but Noah is basically already too big for this outfit anyways...

Is this a sign of things to come? Dad and Noah obsessing over sports and yelling at the TV? Either way, they both look cute... minus Dante's ridiculous mustache... gross. Also, I have no idea of how to flip this picture around.... so sorry it is upside down!

Lastly, one of Noah's most favorite activities... besides eating and sleeping... is taking his bath. That kid could spend hours in there! He he is getting ready... he wasn't very happy about it at the moment:

And here is our cute little chunky monkey in the bath... bath time is my favorite, because afterwards he is always so snuggley!

Look at that little gut :)

My Little Family :)

2011-10-25T19:57:00.001-07:00

OK .. I know I have failed at keeping up on my goal of consistently updating our blog, seeing as it has been over 9 months since my last post... however, now that Noah is here, I feel like I have more motivation to keep this bad boy updated so that family and friends that aren't here in Utah can still keep up on our cute little boy and how fast he is growing!

I am just going to start at the beginning... (It is a long post.. tons of pictures are at the end, so if you want to skip the labor and delivery story, just scroll on down!)

I had been working at Vivint (an alarm sales company) all summer and my last day there was October 7th, seeing as how my due date was the 12th, I figured 5- 13 days off ( my induction date was the 20th if he didn't come before then) before he was supposed to come would be a good amount of prep time. To say the least, as I got further along, it wasn't my most favorite activity to go to work every day, especially on Saturdays at 6 am... so I would've been totally happy if he decided to come earlier than the 12th! But that all changed when my boss at 24 Hour Fitness called me and asked me if I could launch the new BodyPump release on Saturday... 4 days before my due date... and of course I said I would... but now that I had committed to teaching this class, and since there was a BYU game that night, I was ok with him not coming until AFTER Saturday.

So Friday came and went and nothing happened, and then Saturday I went and taught BodyPump and was feeling great! That night we went to the BYU football game and I was still feeling great (especially since we were winning)...until after the game.. I was having a really hard time walking back to our car and was feeling really uncomfortable with contractions. When we got home we tried to go to sleep, but my contractions started to get stronger and closer together, they weren't really hurting though, which I was grateful for! We decided we'd probably better go in, just in case, so at 2:30 am we drove to the hospital and checked into the Women's Center. We told them what had been going on and they checked me and I was only dilated to a 1, but was almost fully effaced... So they kept me for an hour to see if I progressed anymore... but alas, in an hours time I only progressed about .5 cm. So they gave me a shot of morphin and sent me home to wait it out a bit. By the time we got home and fell asleep I was still feeling fine, and I called my mom to let her know that I was in early labor and she might want to start making her way down here....and I am so glad I called her then, because as Sunday progressed my contractions got a lot stronger and more painful. I went on about an hour and a half walk with Katie (my sis-in-law) to see if we could help speed up the process, and I think that it definitely helped :) By 8pm that night my mom was here, and my contractions were killing me! I tried to go to sleep, but by 1:30 am I was in tears and was ready to get this baby out! We woke up my mom, grabbed the hospital bag, and once again, in the wee hours of the morning, drove to the hospital. By this time I was only dilated to a 3, but was fully effaced. So they monitored me for another hour and by the end I still hadn't progressed much more.... I was sooooo nervous they were going to send me home again, which I was not about to let happen, but they said they'd call my doctor first to see what he suggested. He said we could either wait it out, monitor me for another hour, or just get some pitocin going and see if that would help me progress more... of course I didn't want to go home and just wait it out, and definitely didn't want to just wait in the hospital for another hour for nothing else to happen... so they hooked me up to the pitocin and got things moving. I kept telling myself I wanted to see how long I could go before I really needed an epidural, but after just a couple of minutes being on the pitocin I opted to get the epidural... BEST CHOICE EVER!!!! Dante said my attitude and personality was like night and day with me getting an epidural. All I have to say is, props to all of those girls who have babies without having an epidural... Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think I am a pretty tough girl, but I was having a rough time with labor... I don't know if I would've made it without the epidural... actually I am not sure if Dante would've made it... poor guy, I was such a sass to him about everything before the epidural... what a great husband for just shaking it off and still holding my hand.. I love him. Anyways, after I got the epidural life was great, we all fell asleep for awhile until a ton of nurses came running into the room, through an oxygen mask on my face, laid me all the way down and called my doctor. I guess, once the pitocin kicked in, I progressed from a 3 to a 5 in about 10 minutes and little Noah did not like that at all! His heart rate dropped to about 60 bpm... talk about scary. Even though I was kind of confused at first, once I realized what was going on, my heart sank. But luckily that only lasted for about 5 minutes, they took me off of the pitocin, and his heart rate bounced right back up to 150 bpm. At about 9 am my doctor came in an checked me and I had progressed to about an 8, and then at 9:45 he came back broke my water and told me to push! After about 20 minutes, at 10:06 am, October 10, 2011, our amazing little boy was born, Noah Ricardo Valenzuela at 7 lbs 9 oz and 20 inches long. The actual delivery went so smoothly, I couldn't have asked for anything better... Noah did have a little bit of a hard time breathing at first, so I only got to hold him for about a minute before they took him to the nursery to make sure everything was ok... but Dante went with him and kept me updated and everything turned out to be just fine :) My friend Linnea, who is an incredible photographer, came and took pictures of the delivery.... don't worry, she wasn't up in my grill while I was delivering... it is just candid moments, ect.... to see all of the pictures she took go to:

http://laf-photo.blogspot.com/2011/10/noah-birth-story.html

She is such a talented photographer, I am so glad she was able to come and take such incredible pictures for us!

It pretty much has been love at first sight... He has been a great baby so far... he slept almost 5 hours last night!! He isn't very fussy usually, and he really is just cute as can be... we are both just so in love with him! He is eating really well and getting so big! At his two week appointment he weighed 8 lbs 10.5 oz and measured in at 21 inches long! So a`whole inch longer and over a pound heavier!

Now the part you've all been waiting for.. pictures. Enjoy!

22 weeks

28 weeks....

31 weeks

37 weeks!

Getting ready to leave the hospital... we were so excited!

He loves sleeping on our pillows.. I love his little feet hanging off the end!

And he loves sleeping with daddy :)

Our little cougar... bleeding blue from the start!

Our little Cougar with a real BYU cougar!

We made pumpkin pie milkshakes... and if we look exhausted, it is because we are.

I love his little double chin!

I love his cute little (big) feet!

I always find Noah sleeping like this... totally sprawled out!

Snuggling with mamma... he's so little!

All bundled up to go on a walk.. he loves going outside.

A quick substitution until mom was ready to feed him!

He has also gotten in the habit of blowing bubbles every time after he eats.. so cute!

All ready to go to daddy's football game!

Going on a nice Sunday walk as a family. Noah loves his sling!

Tummy Time!

Wow... looooots of pictures! I love being this little boys mommy.. he changes tons every day and is the only one that can make us smile at 3 in the morning... but what can I say... we are basically obsessed... and TOTALLY in love :)

What do I love???

2011-01-22T14:25:00.000-08:00

There are a lot things in this life that I am soo grateful for and love... so I just wanted to make a list so whenever I am doing the "girl thing" and being cranky or having a pity party, I can just look back at this and hopfully smile :)

1. I absolutely just love and adore my dreamboat of a husband!! Dante is the best thing that ever happened to me and I have no idea what I would do without him. He is my better half, and makes me laugh everyday! I can't believe that we have almost been married for 2 whole years. The time has flown by and I am sooo excited to see what the rest of our lives bring. I love you baby!

2. My familia. I have be so blessed to be able to live close to family while I have been here in Utah, and it has been the best thing ever. It is definitely going to be a sad day when we no longer all live next to each other in anymore. My older brother Cody has already moved, but we were lucky enough to have a lot of really fun memories together before he moved to the east coast. My parents are the most amazing people ever, and I can't even begin on my younger brothers. They make me laugh soo hard... I love it every time they come to visit or when we get to go up to Oregon. I am especially grateful for my new family. Dante's side of the family has welcomed with open arms and been so fun to get to know.

3. Friends. I can't even begin to describe how much I love my friends. Before I met Dante, they were who I was with everyday... and throughout ridiculous hours of the night. My friends are so important to me and have definitely helped shape me into the person I am today. Thanks for always being there!!! and for all of the crazy and irresponsible memories we have together :) I wouldn't change a thing!

4. School. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to go to school and receive an education. It was hard, and I was most of the time sleep deprived.. but I loved every minute of it... wellll most of it... maybe not the tests!! I have had extremely good professors that have helped open my eyes up to a great big world. I am grateful for what they taught me about health and fitness, the human body, the gospel, and how to be a grown up and responsible adult. I do feel very accomplished being out of school... but I will always have a place in my heart that still misses going to class and learning. Who knows... maybe I'll go back one day?? Go Cougars!!!

5. Exercise. I LOVE TO EXERCISE!!! I feel like these past couple of years at BYU and learning about how amazing our bodies are and how important it is to take care of them has released a new energy within me to workout reguarly and eat healthy. Sometimes it is hard to drag my tried body to the gym, but I love the challange... and oddly i love to sweat and feel my body getting stronger. I am so grateful for a family that worksout reguarly and has taught me since a young age, why it is important to be healthy. I love exercising... that is all there is to it :)

End of a great year

2010-12-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

ok.. I know that I haven't been awesome at my two week blogging goal... but at least it hasn't been six months. baby steps.... (this post took place over a couple of weeks... so it is a little scattered.. better than nothing though, right?)

My newest highlight in my life is that I FINALLY found a new job!!! That's right, no more giving showers, feeding, cleaning up throw up, or wiping saggy old butts for me... and I cannot be happier :) I have definitely reached the end of rope working there, that is for sure. My last day was on the 15th and it was the best feeling walking out of there. I was sad to say goodbye to a couple of my favorite residents, but I am pretty sure that they won't remember me in the long run anyways. It was a good learning experience working there, so I will just take those experiences with me and move on.

My new job is at Velocity as a Velocity coach training high school and collegate athletes in speed, power , and strength. I am also working at a business called CSCCa (Collegate Strength and Conditioning Coaches association) as a personal assistant part time... and I am getting ready to audition to teach cycle classes at 24 Hour Fitness.... soooo needless to say, we are busy busy busy.

We are currnetly up in Oregon for the holidays, and it has been a blast since we arrived. We were going to fly, but Mike and Katie decided that they wanted to go, so we all lied through our teeth to my family and suprised everyone with their family when we showed up. It was one heck of a drive though. Cramming all 7 of us, including two carseats and a booster seat into a Honda Pilot made for a very cramped trip. Towards the end of the 12 hour drive the babies totally lost it and screamed all the way through Portland until we reached our driveway... that was fun. To make matters even worse, right before we were suppose to take the exit to head to Beaverton Jack announced that he had to go pee and couldn't hold it... yikes... so of ocurse we had to take any even longer detour through downtown Portland.It was quite the roadtrip, but it was all worth it coming home and suprising everyone! Speaking of suprises, Cody (my older brother) suprised everyone on Christmas and announced that he is engaged and is getting married on May 6th in the San Diego temple... (it is about time!!!!!) We are looking forward to spending the rest of our break here and hope the you all had a very Merry Christmas and that you will have a Happy New Year!

Obsessed.

2010-11-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

Obsessed. That is what I am......

With sugar that is. I have set goals, made promises, and threats when it has come to trying to slow down on the sugar intake, but my sweet tooth has become more than an every now and then kind of habit.... that's right..... it is now an obsession. I CANNOT go one day without eating at least 3 pieces of candy...sneaking some ice cream.. or giving into any sort of craving... recently, my obsession of choice has been:

TOTSIEROLL POPS!! I don't know if it is because it reminds me of my childhood, or if it is simply because I love all forms and shapes of sugar... but I have literally been craving these things!!! (no I am NOT pregnant)

I have come to conclusion in the past couple of day though. Every time I have tried to "restrain" myself from sugar or cut down... I end up going crazy and eating every piece of candy in sight! So I have decided that instead of saying NO SUGAR... I should focus on exercising even harder so that I can eat whatever i want... just kidding...

I really am starting today... ok well actually today has already been ruined... so tomorrow, I am going to start putting myself on a sugar restriction.. to ONE small sweet thing a day... I know (from experience) that if I go cold turkey I will turn into a crazy sugar craving monster (kind of like when I am on my period... but worse because it is all of the time instead of just once a month).. so I need to just set limits. here is my limit. ONE. SWEET. THING. A. DAY. AFTER. DINNER. NO. EXCEPTIONS. Why after dinner you ask? because that is when the cravings are strongest. During the day I am actually quite good at eating healthy and avoiding sweets... it is after dinner that I turn crazy. Kind of like how old people somehow become crazier after the sun sets. ... but if I know i can treat myself to one sweet thing after dinner... it doesn't seem to bad! Of course holidays and birthdays will be an exception to sweets... but that doesn't mean i have to give up on any kind of portion control. You are all my witnesses..... Tomorrow marks day one... keep your fingers crossed.... maybe I should fill Dante in on the details so he doesn't wonder why all of a sudden I am ten times more emotional and twenty times or irritable.

Just some thoughts...

2010-10-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

So I know it is a bit past the two week blog posting I was shooting for... but this is progress, it hasn't been even a month since my last post!! Baby steps right?

Speaking of babies, I work at a nursing home... which is basically like babysitting a bunch of babies in a big peoples bodies. I am constantly saying things like, "don't play with yourself; we don't say mean things like that to other people, it is not nice!; please wash your hands after you use the restroom; please chew and swallow all of your veggies; don't hit; don't shout; use your utensils when you eat... it goes on and on... I am currently searching the market EVERYDAY for a new job... but for the time being I have decided that I need to stay positive and just laugh at all of the weird things these crazy old farts do....

1. We have a resident that is 101 years old... yep.. 101.. and she cannot hear a dang thing. Even when my lips are practically inside of her ear yelling to ask her something... she without fail will say... "I can't hear what you are saying.... do you even speak English?" Or my all time favorite is... "I can't understand you... I don't speak danish!!" She is my favorite resident.. mostly because she makes me laugh everyday.

2. The other day I was asking one of the residents if they were ready for their shower.. without skipping a beat, she asked me, "oooooo what kind of shower??? A baby shower, bridal shower??" And then proceeded to get dressed for the occasion... what????

3. One day I walked into another residents room and he was packing his suitcase. I asked him where he was heading and he told me to tell the Nurse he needed some time off because he was goign on vacation from this place. Sadly, he probably will never leave the nursing home, but i wasn't about to be the one to crush his dreams.

Almost everyday someone thinks they are getting ready to go home or heading to the basement to do laundry... it is funny to get a taste of what they used to do daily or what they used to be like... but they also DEFINITELY have their days where they make work a living hell, literally.... Almost on a daily basis, these are some of the things that happen that drive me insane..

1. In an 8 1/2 hour shift, we had one resident press his call light 65 times... 65!!! it is already crazy working there, but that definitely didn't help one bit. I am fine helping when they REALLY need help, but he would say things like hiss legs didn't work anymore and he couldn't stand (lie), he would call us in there, but once we would get there he would be "sleeping"...

2. We have one resident in particular who likes to be manipulative... and will dump his urinal all over the bed to get attention... or poop, liquid poo (after taking a laxative), on purpose all over the floor and then will be a finger painter... yep exactly what is sounds like... and would smear it everywhere.. just to make us mad.

3. We have a lot of residents with eating disorders, someone throws up their meals at least once a day.. I hate throw up... it already smells and is disgusting.. but coming out of a body that is over 80 and is already breaking down, it is ten times worse.

4. I don't think I will ever get used to the smell of grown human urine or poo... ever.. I dry heave at least twice a day. I feel bad that these people are to the point in their lives where they cannot even use the restroom on their own, but really... their bodily functions smell anything but good. It is so strong and toxic smelling, it could take out a whole room in a matter of seconds. I think the smell of old people urine and bowel movements will forever be stuck inside of my nasal cavity.

5. Most people in our facility are extremely proper... but i think when they got old that they lost their filter... i don't think I have ever heard one group of senior citizens swear more than this group. Whether they are happy, sad, mad, sleepy, or just relaxing, I haven't had a conversation that doesn't include at least one profane word spoken. Of course I don't get offended... it is actually quite funny to see these little old ladies without teeth and crazy hair swearing up a storm.

i love helping old people and listening to the crazy things they have to say.... however, this is definitely the hardest job i have EVER EVER EVER had. I have a love.. but mostly hate relationship with it... but, until I find that magical new job I will listen to their crazy ramblings, their profanities they shout at me, wipe their soiled and saggy bums, and take them to their showers... no matter what kind of shower they think it is.

Spring, Summer, Anniversary.Graduation. Crruuuuuuuise

2010-09-08T15:24:00.000-07:00

I have personally set a new goal to update my blog AT LEAST once every two weeks. I am tired, as I am sure that you are too, of reading ridiculously long blog posts every 6 months that update you on our lives. So lets cross our fingers and hope that this will be the last "catch you up on our lives" post!!

I have to say that these past four months have been super crazy, but we have thoroughly enjoyed our summer here in Provo. After winter semester ended in April, we both jumped right in to Spring term. I have never had classes spring or summer term, but it was definitely hard to sit in class when the sun was shining! I took classes both spring and summer classes and started my internship at Y-BE-FIT on BYU campus. Classes were hard. at an accelerated pace. and took every fiber of my being to concentrate on them! However, I did love working at Y-BE-FIT as a fitness and nutrition counselor for the summer. I had clients that I met with every week and set little goals with to help them reach their overall fitness goals. It was so amazing to see everyone accomplish their goals and get back into shape. I think the thing that I loved most about it though, was seeing people who just a couple of weeks ago hated exercising, get excited and about working out and eating healthy. What a rewarding internship that was!

In May we celebrated our one year anniversary! I honestly cannot believe that I have been married for a year (well now it is almost a year and a half)! Our anniversary was on a Sunday this year, so I made us a big pot roast dinner that day and it was delish! We did take a lot of pictures, but I am technology challenged and deleted most of them :( so here is a picture of the dinner I made.

At the end of May we took a road trip out to California for our friends Jeremy and Kelsey's wedding. It was so fun to see such great friends get married and enjoy a short vacation together. We went to the beach ( and got soooo sunburned) the wedding, and as an anniversary gift to ourselves, we went to six flags with our friends John and Amy.

June was a looong month. However, we did get season passes to the Seven Peaks water park, and I am pretty sure that I went just about everyday of the week! It was great that my sister-in-law and her kids all had passes as well as other friends from our ward did. With Utah's hot summer days, it helped pass the time and gave me a nice tan :)

July was pretty hectic, but a month packed with fun! To celebrate the 4th, we went and watched the Stadium of Fire celebration at the BYU football field, and it was so fun! We went early with a bunch of friends to find a good place to watch from and layed out blankets and played games and ate popcicles while we wait for the show to begin. It was such a great way to celebrate our independence day!

The next week Dante, my old roomie Mandy, and I all piled into a car and drove all the way up to eastern Washington to Lake Sacajawea to go wakeboarding and camping with my family and other friends. Dante had never wakeboarded before, so it was a blast have him get out there and give it a try. I also hadn't wakeboarded for almost 2 years!!! So it felt good to get back in the water and bust it out. We were only able to go for 4 of the 8 days they were there, but it was such a great and relaxing trip. We didn't have any cell phone or internet access all week and we loved it! Although we were hurting when we got home because of how sore we were, it was all worth the "pain" and hated having to go back to work and classes after such a fun trip!

August was also jam packed with things to do, but we both loved it because we graduated from college! I cannot believe that I am a BYU grad now! It was such a surreal feeling getting my diploma. Mine and Dante's family both came to Utah for the trip, and it was such a fun weekend to have them both here. We went to Seven Peaks all day with everyone, had a graduation party, played games together, stayed up way to late talking, and of course went to graduation. We arranged it so that Dante and I could walk together, and even though I graduated with the Sociology Department, it was such a fun day being able to finish up our BYU experience together.

To celebrate graduation and our honeymoon that we never went on, we decided to go on a cruise with our good friends Sean and Alena. We piled into a car on Saturday and drove to California, and then on Sunday boarded the Cruise ship for a whole week of absolute fun! I cannot even begin to describe the great time we had on the ship. From the time we got on, to the time we got off, it was a blast!

New Medium

2010-07-29T11:08:00.001-07:00

I am going to start posting my thoughts at the Man Stuff Blog with a few other guy's guys.

http://gunshooting-bbqer.blogspot.com/

Thanks a bunch!

A LITTLE TOLERANCE, FOR THE LOVE!

2010-06-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

I felt like the few people that read my last post gave me the courage to write a new blog post. I decided immediately after my last post that if I got a good response, I would make another one after the NBA Finals since my favorite team and my favorite nemesis were set to square off! Celtics vs Lakers! So here it goes...

It is funny living in Utah how many people hate the Lakers and how many Lakers fans there are. Lakers haters are typically die hard Jazz fans who want any other team to avenge the Jazz most recent loss. So it seems like everyone that found out I was going for the Celtics had to know if I was legit or just wanted blood for the last Jazz Lakers game.

The truth is, in high school it was hard for me to say I had a favorite basketball team. I like a lot of players. Paul Pierce was one of them. One day I bought a shirt because it looked cool... it had this logo, actually:

Not long after, I bought a nice Celtics hat to match it and slowly became a Celtics fan. It didn't hurt that they were the NBA franchise with the most titles. And it didn't hurt that I was already a Red Sox fan (we hate the Yankees, Dan and Kristin :) but love you!).

For two weeks my life was a wreck! I couldn't wait for game one and I was so excited and nervous. Our friends Dougie and Melissa (huge Lakers fans) agreed with us that we would watch the games in LA at their house and the Boston games at our house. We promised each other that we would not let it get between us because rivalries tear families apart! North vs South, Pro Choice vs Pro Life, Leno vs Conan, Team Jacob vs Team Edward. The list goes on and on.

It was a fun series to watch each team go back and forth because both teams played exceptionally well from game to game by adjusting to the other team's strategy. My favorite player, Rajon Rondo, was amazing in a couple of games.

Boston was winning 3 games to 2 with game 6 and 7 both being played in LA. Boston just had to win one more game in LA to win the finals. So far Dougie and I had kept our word of watching the game at eachother's house. But before game six came around, I thought I should back out and not watch it at his house. I was too nervous. I told Anna that I was as nervous as I was at our own wedding. I married a woman who loves sports, too, so she wasn't surprised.

So I didn't want to go to Dougie's house because I knew no matter how the game ended, I didn't want to put any friendships at risk. If the Celtics had won, I would've been so happy that I probably would have said something insensitive to Dougie and the other Lakers fans. That's how I roll (UTES SUCK. See? I can't help it).

Had the Lakers won, I probably would have punched something and either looked like a fool in front of a lot of people after breaking my hand or I would have punched something softer like Dougie's dog. Either would have embarrassed my wife quite a bit. So I decided to watch at my own house alone. Celtics lost and I was able to punch my couch to my heart's content.

For game 7 I followed the same logic. I watched a great game 7 with some people going for Boston (Gustavo and Marjie). It was a great game and as disappointed as I was that Boston couldn't close out the game with the lead they had carried for most of the game, everything quickly fell into perspective and I was happy about the incredible run they made. There's always next year (That still sounds like kissing your sister to some extent in my head).

But what upset me the most about the whole Series and a few other things I have noticed in sports recently is the purpose of this blog post. There are a lot of passionate fans out there. And there is nothing wrong with that. It upsets me when people take it too far and are ready to say things that will offend their friends or family just because of the outcome of a silly game. I know I am guilty of this, but why do we have to do it? Why can't we be civil with each other after sporting events. Do we really get together as fans to compete against each other? What did I gain over Utes fans the last time BYU beat Utah in overtime? What did Alabama fans gain that I lost after the BCS Championship Game when they beat Texas? What did I lose this week when Boston lost the championship after the Lakers made a comeback to win? If I look at the big picture of life: nothing. I'm still alive and kicking it (and punching dogs).

Can't we, as fans, get together when our teams are competing and enjoy the exciting moments we spend together. We love the sports we watch and we love our favorite athletes. But don't we love our friends and family more? Why can't we be more tolerant of one another? Can we lose with pride and win with humility? Like I said, I am guilty of all of this. Only because Dougie and Melissa are moving away this week did I realize this - I can't believe I wouldn't want to enjoy watching the game with our friends that are moving away for good simply because I knew I would be a poor sport about it.

And look at the World Cup. It is a lot of fun to watch. I have never played soccer but I have grown to really appreciate it. But nothing bothers me more than when sports fans, or worse yet, ATHLETES complain that soccer is not a real sport!!! How could you be so ignorant? The moment a baseball fan tells a soccer fan that "Baseball plays until there is a winner! Soccer isn't a real sport," he opens the door for the soccer fan to say, "Soccer players don't stand around for 3 hours and claim they are athletes competing in a sport."

FOR THE LOVE! Can't you let others enjoy whatever sport they choose to enjoy?! Who decides what sport is more important, relevant or legitimate? The fans and athletes! If cup stacking is my sport of choice, let me enjoy it. I will watch it for hours or train to win my championship if I want. Don't try to take away from the joy I get from it!

But isn't that the solution to so many other problems? Can't we simply be more tolerant of everyone? Everyone chooses to believe what they want. There are so many conflicting ideas out there and most of them are legitimate: from religion to politics and even sports! I know we all like to believe we are correct, but who has given us the right to tell someone they are wrong or that they are stupid for choosing to live the way they do? It doesn't mean we have to agree with the decisions people make. I don't think it's right to cheer for a adulterer like Kobe , but doesn't that make me wrong for not forgiving a man for his mistakes? (That's not why I don't like him, BTW. I hate him because he poses for ridiculous pictures):

So the next time someone tells you that he doesn't agree with your opinion on the Arizona Immigration Law, your religion, or whether or not you can call a sport legitimate that can end in a draw, rather than trying to prove he is wrong and you are right, ask him for his take and share yours with him. If you still can't see eye to eye, at least you still feel comfortable inviting him to your house for dinner without fear that he will punch your dog.

We are "Lost" no more

2010-05-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

So if anyone out there still follows our quarterly blog, you'll be surprised to find a post from me, Dante. I just had so much to get off my chest. Facebook is usually my channel but not only do I have too much to post in my status, there are so many Lost haters out there that I would be upset if they started telling me that Lost sucked etc.
So Anna and I got hooked on Lost pretty recently. November 2009 to be exact. We spent an evening at Dan and Kristin's house watching the Big XII championship game (Texas won). The game ended early and we didn't want to call it a night. The Christenson's had already watched the entire first season that month and wanted to get started on season two that night. Anna had already watched the first season too. I typically don't like to start shows or movies in the middle, but I didn't want to be the party pooper. I gave in to the peer pressure. (May I add that Torrey from work had been trying to get me to watch Lost for months before this night).
Needless to say, we spent the next 3 hours watching disc 1 of season 2. I was totally confused but completely intrigued. Anna and I spent the next 3 weeks tearing through season 1 and 2. It was amazing! We realized we had to quit during finals week, so with the exception of finals week, we watched at least 6 episodes a week for nearly two months. By the time the final season was ready to begin, we had watched 5 full seasons of a show. Addicted? Yes.
So needless to say, once we caught up we had to find new hobbies so that we could slowly return to society as productive members. It was hard at first and we felt the withdraws.
So after 7 months of obsession, it has finally come to an end. We watched the finale at home on Sunday night. It had the excitement and buzz of the 2004 Game 7 ALCS where Boston had come back from down 0-3 to force a game 7 against the Yankees. There was so much build up and such high expectations that I didn't know how I would be able to handle a let down.
Much like that historic game 7, Lost did not disappoint.
I loved every aspect of the finale. And I won't explain my theories or explanations or blah. There are thousands of blogs that explain all of that. But after talking to other addicts that tuned in for the finale, I have come up with a conclusion regarding those who watched it and their reactions.
I feel like the Lost world was split into two camps: the group intrigued by the science of everything on the island and the group that fell in love with the characters. I never bought into any of the science stuff. Science doesn't make sense to me. That's why I am a sociology major. But I watched the show because the writers did such a good job of developing the major characters and making you feel like you actually knew them. For crying out loud I have probably watched these people for over 100 hours in the last 7 months. That's more time I have spent talking to my mother, father and sister over the last year. Yes it is true.
Now for an aside: BYU professors always tell students "for every hour you spend in class, you should spend two hours studying for that class on your own." I put that advice to use during season 6. Boy did I ever. I can assume that for every episode every week, I would spend about 2 hours either reading about lost, watching recaps etc. Did it help me understand everything better? Yes. Can I carry on an intelligent conversation with someone about what was happening on Lost at any point in the season? Yes. Did I think about each character as a friend? Yes. Did I do this at all during my four years for class at BYU? Absolutely not. Maybe I should ask myself if I did as well as I could have for four years at school. No I shouldn't. I already know the answer.
Well this aside was important as I mention my final point of this blog: I really loved the characters on the show! I had so much fun quoting the show and watching my wife's reaction that says, "You are obsessed. We are going to stop watching this show." She couldnt part ways either though.
When the final episode came around and brought closure to the chararcters, fans like my wife and I were satisfied. Ever since they killed off Charlie I have had this sad feeling that "they would never be together again." Then more characters died and I felt even more despair. But the finale did two things: First it reminded us that this life is important, and the afterlife will be special because we get to spend it with those we care about the most; Second, it showed me that if you had not put the time to understand where the show was going, you would not be satisfied. The casual fan could not be satisfied at all. There were so many subtle answers that would be impossible to interpret if you had not read and remembered the important lines and storylines throughout 6 years of television.
I find myself now in the chapel with the characters of the finale ready to remember and let go.
See you in another life, brotha.

Spring is in the air... or is it??

2010-03-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

I heard a rumor yesterday that it was suppose to be a nice and warm 70 degrees today... very exciting right? Wrongo bongo. I woke up today to overcast skies and chilly winds!! So sad. And unfortunately, with Utah's crazzzy weather, it does not look like we will see this nice weather for awhile still =(

Today

Intermittent Clouds

High 68°

Low 43°

Tomorrow

Mostly Cloudy

High 60°

Low 40°

Wednesday

Showers

High 44°

Low 28°

Thursday

Rain and Snow Mixed

High 43°

Low 27°

Friday

Partly Sunny

High 49°

Low 33°

I just cannot wait for the blessed day, May 29th, when Seven Peaks will open, and summer will be here! And yes, we do have season passes!!

Another exciting part of summer besides soaking up and sun and being able to wear shorts and flip flops is that we are graduating!!!! We have both officially applied for graduation in August, and we cannot be more excited!!! Although it will be kind of strange to no longer be a student at BYU, we love BYU, and are hoping the Dante gets into grad school here!! Go cougs!

The Usual.

2009-12-29T17:32:00.000-08:00

I have decided that I am just not a very consistent blogger.... so here is my usual couple month catch up of what we have been up too. Novemeber 9th was our 6th month anniversary, and Dante suprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers! What an amazing hubby =) My family also were able to come down in Novemeber for Thanksgiving, except for my dad, he had to work... which was lame. His boss is ridiculous... but that is another story. Anyways, my older brother Cody won extra tickets for the BYU vs. Uof U rivalry game by standing on his head and sang the BYU fight song. So we were able to have enough tickets for my mom and brothers to make it to the game! It was such an exciting game, and we ended up winning in over time! We were all screaming like crazy, and Dante and I rushed the field afterwards, it was AWESOME!

December was a pretty crazy month between trying to finish final projects, study for finals, and do Christmas! I am pretty sure Dante and I didn't see eachother most of the week of finals. However, once we ended finals and we have been able to relax during thie Christmas break, it has been so fun! My friend Alena came over on Sunday and we decided to bake our hearts out so we could deliver Christmas treats to our friends! We spent ALL day in the kitchen, but I think that it was definitely worth it in the end.. and hopefully the people we delivered these too did as well!

A couple days before Christmas, we went with our good friends the Seth and Carrol to the Vegas Bowl! We were able to walk the strip the first day we were there. We visted the M&M factory

We also went to the Coca Cola store, and they had a place where you could try 16 different flavors of Coca Cola from around the world! It was really fun to try the different flavored drinks. Some were amazing... others were not so good...

Besides going to the game, I think my favorite thing that we did was watch the fountains at the Belagio hotel. If you haven't seen this before I highly recommend going, it was amazing!

The game was sooooo much fun, and it made it even better that we totally tore apart OSU! However, the game was FREEZING! I seriously thought my fingers and toes were going to fall off after the 1st quarter. This didn't stop us from cheering our heart out at the game though, and since it was so cold, a lot of fairweather fans left and we were able to watch the game from the front row, it was amazing. Of course after the clock ran out we rushed the field with a bunch of our fellow BYU fans and it was sooo fun. We met up with #5 Brandon Bradley who is in our ward, and were also able to high five and take pictures with a bunch of the other players.

Life as we know it... and loving it!

2009-10-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

Gosh, I really need to set a time aside each month to update our blog... you know kind of like writing in your journal?? ANYWAYS..... Just to update on our currnet status is life.... Dante and I are both still at BYU and really are enjoying our time here =) We spend a lot of our time apart between school and work, so we try to take advantage of the time we do have together!! I have been trying to find new recipes lately, and Dante acutally found one on his friend's blog for french bread pizza!!! It was so easy to make and it was yummy! All it took was:

- A loaf of French Bread

- Spagetti Sauce with some added Italian seasoning

- Shredded pepper jack cheese

- Pepperoni

- and whatever else you want on top!!!

- cook at 375 for about 8-10 mins

On a random note, one night we decided to have omlets for dinner and this is how it turned out... looking like the states! hahaha

Anyways... a couple of weeks ago Dante and I had our co-ed basketball game and it was getting pretty competitive... and I ended up getting elbowed in the mouth which split my lip almost the whole way through and chipped my tooth!

I didn't want to pay the fee at the ER since BYU insurance doens't cover very much there... so lame by the way, if the BYU health center is going to close at 6pm, they should have a better policy.. Seriously... do they think that people don't get hurt after their closing hours?!?!?! anways, so I went and played in my flag football game... which we won by 5 touchdowns =), went home at showered and was in bed and finally decided that since the cut was on my face that I should probably bite the bullet and go to the ER... we ended up staying there until about 2 am and I come home with a fat lip and 4 stitches.. it was a very exciting adventure. I just want to give a shout out to my amazing husband for putting up with my stubborness and staying with me in the ER all night when I finally decided to go, I love you baby.

4 days after the injury Dante and I flew home for Mitchells farewell talk!! I can't believe that he leaves TOMORROW to go to Brazil... he is sooooo ready though, and he did an amazing job on his talk. He is going to be an amazing missionary, I am really looking forward to his upcoming letters =) We loved going home!! It consisted of a lot of naps, some amazing eating thanks to my mom's amazing cooking, we went to Devon's football game on Friday night, and Dylans football game on Sautrday night. It was a blast and we both wished that we could've stayed longer!! It was really hard to try to get back into the swing of things after we came home!

In the spirit of Halloween I had a work party which helped, and we carved pumpkins!! It was really fun.. for some reason we have carved a lot of pumpkins this year, but I think our latest one is the one I like the most!! It is of Jack the pumpking king from the Nightmare Before Christmas !!

After the work party we came home and studied for awhile and then at 1 am we went to the parking lot across from the football stadium and camped out for the ESPN college game day that came to Provo!! In case you were wondering... yes it was raining while we set up our tent, yes it was freeeeeezing (despite what Dante says), yes it was loud... ALL NIGHT LONG, and yes we did get in line early enough to actually get inside the barriers for the college game day set up! If we wouldn't have gotten in I probably would've counted this as one of our worst experiences together... but since we were able to make it in we did have a lot of fun despite being sleep deprived and cold!! PS... please excuse how gross I look in these pictures... but given the circumstances I guess that was about as good as it was going to get!! However, we both are now sick... haha but how often is EPSN college game day goign to come to Provo?! GO COUGS!!!

Our latest adventures

2009-09-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

I know, I am lame.. it has been over a MONTH since I last blogged... totally unexceptable. I guess I will just pick up where I left off. Dante and I left Maryland the 22nd of August, but before we left we did get to do a couple of fun things...

We went to a Red Sox game against the Orioles and it was a blast.. especially since the Red Sox won... Dante would NOT have been happy if they would have lost!

The game was in downtown Baltimore and it was soooooo crowded!! After the game we walked around the harbor area and went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.. I am pretty sure they make the best milkshakes ever there... anyways...

We also decided to one day do a puzzle... seems simple enough, right?? Wrongo bongo...

So you may be asking why we decided to do this puzzle... I will admit that it is kind of ghetto, and I really have no idea why we picked this one because it is pretty ugly..but we were up for the challenge...

This is pretty much how our kitchen table looked for a couple weeks...and we found a couple of pieces in there that were the EXACT same puzzle piece!! So needless to say we weren't able to finish our ghetto fab puzzle before we left, but we were both felt find about not finishing it! One thing we were very excited about though was the day we packed up our car and drove all the way back to Utah! We tried to organize our car in an orderly fashion...

but lets be hoenst, between all of mine and Dantes stuff ( he is pretty high maintnance... just kidding sweetie), the car was pack pretty tightly, but we were happy to be heading back to Provo!

However.. after being in the car for 12 hours and having to drive 24more hours we slowly began to lose our enthusiasum for being in the car. We drove from Baltimore to Chicago and stayed the night there and woke up for the 24 hour drive ahead of us. I took a picture on our GPS of when were suppose to be arriving in Utah....

I took this picture at 9:30 in the morning after sleeping in Chicago... if you look closely in the bottom left hand corner it says that will will arrive in utah.. 7:19 AM, the next day. ew.

We did have some movies that we brought with us that we watched on our lap top which made the trip go by a lot faster because it was a VERY boring drive...this is basically what we looked at the WHOLE DRIVE HOME......

Corn fields and bug guts.... talk about boring.

We ended up driving the whole rest of the 24 hours striaght through!! We stopped for gas at about 4:00am and played frisbee for awhile, and then at about 5:30 am decided to take a nap before we both got too tired to drive. We ended up pulling into our drive way at about 10:30 in the morning... it was AWESOME getting out of the car and unloading everything into our new duplex =)

We are both in school right now and are having a blast being here at BYU!!! I will admit since we have been married we do go to bed before 11:30 every night, but that is definitely a new habit in my life that I don't mind having. =)

"Daycations"

2009-08-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

Since Dante has to work Monday through Saturday ALL DAY LONG, we don't really have a huge window of space to go do things together.... so we have really been trying to take advantage of our time together by taking a "daycation" on Sundays since that is Dante's only day off! Recently we went and visited the National history museum in Washington DC, and it was really cool! They had a whole exhibit dedicated to Abe Lincoln, and another of all of the major wars our country has gone through.... it was really fun to walk through!

Last weekend we also had the chance to go up to New York city with some of our friends, and it was a blast!! After figuring out how to work the subway system, we made it to ground zero, the statue of liberty, the NBA store (Dante loved it there.. and lets be honest, so did I!) and Times Square! Since we were only limited to a being there for a day we didn't get to see everything that we wanted to, but it was still a blast!! It is so fun being married and being able to do all of these things with my cute husband =)

Impulsive decision???? I think so!

2009-07-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

A couple of months before I got married I really wanted to cut my hair, but of course I didn't so I could have long blonde locks to go along with my beautiful wedding dress. However, lately these impulses to cut my hair have been slowly re-entering my train of thought... Yesterday my friend showed me a cut she thought would look cute on me and without thinking about it twice I called up a hair salon and schedulled an appointment to chop all of my hair off!! Did I think about it all day today? Yes. Did I feel like I was going to throw up when I sat down in the salon chair? Yes. Do I love my new hair cut? YES YES YES!!!! Have I told Dante that I was cutting my hair? NO, we'll if he is suprised when he gets home in about an hour! It will definitely be something to get used to... but it is a fun change and I am sure Dante won't mind the lack of my long blonde hair all over everything now.

BEFORE

AFTER

July 4th in DC

2009-07-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know that this a little bit late, but it is definitely still worthy of blogging about! The guys only had to work a half day on the 4th of July, so me and one of the other wives packed up snacks and games and rode the metro to Washington DC to save spots watch the fireworks! We left at 3:30 and got there by 5:30 and it was already packed with people. There were a bunch of festivities going on and music playing and it was really fun. So we hiked through all the crowds of people over to the lawn in front of the Washington Monument and layed out blankets and then waited... and waited... and waited some more until Dante and some other guys that he works with showed up just in time to see the firework show! It was truely amazing to be at our nations captiol celebrating out country's independence day. They put on an amazing firework show right behind the Lincoln Memorial, so we had prime seating! The only downer to the night was how long it took us to get home... and riding the metro on the way back was a disaster. We were all smashed together
like a can of sardins, butit was totally worth it!

Baltimore!

2009-06-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

Can I just say that I LOVE summer! There are so many fun things to do and it is warm and it is so nice to just have a break from school and all the snow of Utah. As most of you know Dante and I moved all the way out to Baltimore for the summer and it has definitely been an adventure! We had a couple day honeymoon out in Lincoln city, drove to Texas afterward for the open house there, and then drove all the way out to Maryland. We spend apporximatley a whole week in a car driving coast to coast... not something I would recommend to anyone! Baltimore is pretty cool though, it actually reminds me a lot of Oregon in how green it is here... but it is like 20 times more humid here, but we like it for the most part. We are also living in such nice apartments right now, they are brand new with a washer and dryer, a hugh master bedroom, granite counter tops, and a swimming pool and weight room. It's a really nice set up, but I think that we will have a little bit of a wake up call when we head back to Provo and realize that we won't be living like royalty anymore!

Dante is selling alarm systems for Platinum secruity Mon-Sat 12-10pm, so it is a pretty demanding schedule.. but since we have been out here we have been able to do some really fun things. One of our first weekends out here we went to Gettysburg! It was so amazing to be able to see the battlefields and cemetary in person after learning so much about all of this in school.

The following weekend we went down to the harbor area of Baltimore and it is such a fun area! There was an old power plant there that they had turned into a ESPN Zone (Dante loved that part), a Hard Rock Cafe, and other fun restaurants and stores right a long the dock. We rented a paddle boat and were able to float around the Marine Museum they had right here in the harbor which was pretty neat, and I finally got to touch the Atlantic ocean! They also have a huge aquarium there that we are both looking forward to going to some day soon =) As we were leaving and walking to our car we also walked past a Holacuast Memorial. The statue in the middle was kind of creepy, but overall it was a pretty sweet memorial!

This past weekend we decided to make the trek out to Washington DC, and it was totally worth it! I absolutley loved the area out there. There is soooo much to do, you could spend a whole week there and have something to do every day! We started out in the Air and Space museum at the Smithsonian and it was way cool... the museum showed how airplanes worked, and the development of space shuttles like Apollo 13. After hanging out there for awhile we walked up to the Capitol building and it was so amazing! It felt really surreal to be there. The buidling was beautiful though, and on top of the building is a statue of Lady Liberty. We then walked to the Washtington Monument, and the walk there was soo cool. All of the building have the most amazing architecture! However, when we got to the Washington Monument it was even more incredible, not only because of the Washington Monument, but because from there you could see the Capitol in one direciton, the World War II memorial/Lincoln Mermorial in another direction, and the White House in another direction. Talk about AWESOME!!! After we walked around the Washington Monument we walked through the World War II memorial to the Lincold memorial and it was seriously my favorite part of the day. Honest Abe was such an inspiring man, and it was such a neat opportunity to be able to visit his memorial.

Like I said though, you could spend a whole week there and

have plenty of things to do, and by the time we were done at the Lincoln Memorial it was almsot ten, so we just drove by the white house, but I am sure we'l be back there soon enough to acutally walk by it!

Time to UPDATE!!

2009-05-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, it has been quite some time since I last got on here... so I am just going to give ya a general update on the major things that have happened the past couple of months.
In March we had our friend Marybeth take our engagement pictures!! It was sooooo fun, and marybeth did an AMAZING job. We took them at the Riverwoods and had a blast taking them.. even though Dante said he didn't really enjoy taking pictures for an hour, I know deep down that he was loving it.. I mean who doesn't love having pictures taken on themselves???

April was a craZZy month to say the least... between studying like mad for upcoming finals, planning a wedding, and trying to work out all the time to shed those extra pounds before the big day, every day was a whirl wind. We were both definitely happy the day finals ended allowing us to spend more time together before I left to Oregon to finish up things while Dante stayed in Utah and worked before we got married. Needless to say, I was glad when the month of April was over!!! I don't think I would've made it if I didn't have my mom helping me as much as she did, thanks momma Fawnbug, I love you!!

When May hit it was pretty exciting because it was crunch time.. we were getting married!! Those last two weeks at home were so fun spending some time with the family before all the company started arriving. Most of my family and a lot of Dante's family were able to come up for the wedding, and let me tell you, it was a party! A bunch of my cute roommates came up and helped out a ton. The Tuesday before we got married I was able to go through the temple for the firs time and it was AMAZING. I am so grateful for how close I have lived to a temple for the most part of my life, what a blessing. On Friday Rachael Wight took us downtown with me in my wedding dress and Dante in his tux and we took so many fun pictures! Since this was the day before our wedding, my roommies came a long and made sure that my dress didn't touch anything dirty (which ps, Katie, my wonderful sister in law let me wear her dress.. it was beautiful and so fun to wear it, thanks KT).. that seemed like a pretty difficult task in downtown Portland, but they did a great job! We also had the wedding dinner on Friday, and it went really well.. not only was the food was delicious, but it was so fun to have all of our close friends and family in one room to share this exciting time in our lives. Later that night my friends that were there threw me a bacholorette party which consisted of eating Bazookies (a fried cookie dough, ice cream and caramel sauce piece of heaven) watching Grey's Anatomy and staying up way to late.. I did have a little freak out moment that night, but after talking with my parents for a bit they helped calm my nerves, I love my mom and dad.. they are the best!
Despite staying up for a large portion of the night, I woke up at 6:45a.m. took a shower and started getting ready for the big day! My lovely friend Lauren did my hair and make up and she did a great job! Within three hours and 87 bobbypins later I was ready to go! Dante and I
showed up at the temple an hour early to take pictures with the photographer, got married at one, took more pictures with family afterwards and headed home for awhile. It all was a blur now that I think back to it... we came home for about an hour after being at the temple and ate some food and touched up a little bit and headed to the stake center for the reception. Although we had to stand in a line for a couple of hours, it was really fun. So many of my close friends that I have grown up with were able to come and meet my new husband and wish us congratulations. After standing in the line we cut the cake, danced our dance together, threw the bouquet and garder, had a dance party and ate some of the fun food that was out there and at about 10:00 we took off to begin our new life together! As we walked out of the stake center to leave everyone was holding sparklers and cheering as we left.. it was sooo fun! Of course we were a bit delayed when we got to the car because our friends had decorated it... but May 9th was the happeist day of my life! I love Dante so much and am so glad that we are married now =) He is such an amazing man and I am so excited to spend my forever with him.

Mountain Biking in Moab

2009-03-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

I know, it has been while since I last wrote anything... I tell this amazing story of how I got engaged to the love my life, and then I just left you hanging! So I thought that I would give a little up date on how we are doing thus far. We keep pretty busy throughout the week with school and work, and of course planning our wedding. It is crazy to think that we only have about a year left before we graduate from BYU! Wow, how time flies, I really feel like just yesterday I was a little freshman moving into my dorm room in good ol' Heritage Halls... anwyays, sorry about that trip down memory lane. In addition to enjoying school and being engaged, we are both excited because the weather is starting to warm up and Provo is beginning to thaw out.. I am so excited for warm weather! Seriously, I think most of you remember when it snowed last week, what the heck?! It is March for crying outloud! Before the snow came back though, we were able to take a fun trip downto Moab with some of friends and go camping and mountain biking!

The weather was absolutely perfect while we were there, in fact I think a couple of us got a little bit sunburned. We rode up Klondikes pass and I am not going to lie, it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be... but it was all definitely worth it! It took us about three and half hours or so to ride to the top of the mountain and then we got off our bikes and hiked to the very end of the trail; the view from the top was breathtaking. Some of Heavenly Father's creations are so incredible!
The view from here was so amazing!

Look at the awesome shapes and colors of those rocks behind us! Also, look at how cute my fiance is, I am seriously so excited to get married to that boy.. as of today we only have 56 days left!!!!! But who is counting???
After spending about an hour of there we hiked back down and were climbing back onto our bikes and realized how badly our bums were hurting! This was not good, because now we had a long, bump ride back down to mountain to where our car was parked... it was the ultimate "test of manhood" getting back on our bikes to ride down. I am almost certain that my bum did not touch my bike seat the whole way down. Despite our sore bums, the ride down was really fun, we all got to be going at a pretty fast pace, but that quickly changed after Dante hit a bump wrong and flipped over his handle bars! Not to worry though, besides a few scratches and scrapes he was ok...what a tough man! It didn't take neaerly as long to get down the mountain, which I am definitely grateful for because my toosh was seriously starting to ache, but we all made it back to the car safely. We biked about 10 miles all together and it was so fun! We even were able to see some fosssilized dinosaur tracks!

So besides our throbbing bums, some cut up legs and arms, and a serious need for a nap, it was an amazing trip!!!

Mr.& Mrs. Valenzuela

2009-02-17T17:01:00.000-08:00

As most of our family and friends know, Dante and I just got engaged this past Friday! At the beginning of the semester we were pretty sure that we were going to be getting married and decided that it was probably a good idea that we meet each others families before we decided to make anything official. In January we flew up to Portland and I was able to introduce Dante to my younger brothers, friends, and big daddy Reed. Luckily enough, he passed the numerous interrogations of my home ward members and family and everyone loved him!
Once we returned from Portland, and he had talked to my dad, I knew that it was free game for him to pop the question! I hoped we would be engaged before I met his family, but as our next three day weekend approached I was still lacking any sort of bling on my left ring finger, I figured he wanted to wait until after I met his family to propose, but little did I know that my sweetheart was already two steps ahead of me.
Late Thursday night, after my basketball game, we began our trek to the sunny weather of El Paso Texas. We laughed and talked and danced to music to help keep us awake until about three o'clock in the morning hit... I seriously thought my bladder was going to explode! So of course I made Dante pull over and find a gas station for me to use the bathroom. So after letting me use the bathroom and strechting our legs a bit, we were back on the road. Not five minutes later though, Dante mentioned that he should've used the bathroom because now he had to go! Luckily there was a rest area only a 1/4 mile away, but to my spurise he totally passed the rest area and just kept drivin! When I asked him why he didn't stop he claimed he didn't like to use rest areas because they were gross and that he would rather just go outside... maybe its a guy thing, but I would much rather use a toliet. Anyways, so we had just barely gotten outside of Moab when we saw a graveled area to the right side of the road and Dante pulled off. He got out really fast and went to the back of the car to find some "toilet paper"... apparently this was going to be a longer pit stop then I thought. After about two minutes of waiting in the car Dante ran back and told me that I HAD to get out of the car to see something in the sky. It was 3:30 in the morning, freezing, and I was way tired, but after a little coaxing I got out of the car and started to scan the sky for whatever it was Dante was trying to show me. It was a clear night and you could see almost every star, the moon was bright and was relecting off of the snow capped mountains, but besides that I really couldn't see what Dante was trying to point to me, and at this point I was really wondering what was going on. I just stood there shivering in his arms until he told me to look down and I saw him holding a round Orange box. I think I felt my heart skip like 4 beats at this point... but I opened the box only to find another box within that one and realized that each box had a different word on it. There were six boxes all together and the message ran together to read: I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY and when I opened the last box there was a HEART shaped pillow with a goreous ring tied to it! I don't know if it was because I was freezing or because I was so suprised, but my hands were shaking so badly that I couldn't even untie the ring from the pillow. But after help from Dante he took my hand, got down on one knee and asked me to spend the rest of eternity with him... and of course I said yes! I was so excited I couldn't stop smiling or looking at my ring... lets be honest, I still can't stop smiling or looking at my ring. And eventhough it was 4 am I definitely called my mom and roommates to share the amazing news with them!
We are getting married for time and all eternity May 9th, at 1 pm in the Portland, Oregon temple. I love this man so much and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him!